April 22, 2007

iTunes Offers Something New, Something Old, Something Blue

Apple's iTunes "My Alerts" feature continues to bring me some great music from artists the service already knows I like, thanks to past purchases. My biggest limitations these days? Determining what to buy, and what to let go. But with $50 in new iTunes gift cards obtained from yesterday's belated birthday bash, I'm being a little more liberal in my tune acquisitions.

Last night, I uncovered three new additions to the iTunes store: something new, something old and something blue, as the saying goes.

Something New

DJ Tiesto's "Elements of Life". Released April 10th, this is DJ Tiesto's latest solo album that doesn't consist of his remixing other artists' tunes, following on to "In My Memory" and "Just Be". I've seen DJ Tiesto in concert, and was even briefly featured in a DVD called "Another Day at the Office", which included a Bay Area stop at Shoreline. Tiesto is easily the world's #1 DJ today, and I'm already enjoying the new tracks. iTunes listeners are calling it the "Best Trance Album of 2007", but... it's only April.

Something Old

Information Society: Peace and Love, Inc. This one debuted on iTunes on March 27, even though the CD itself debuted in 1992. Peace and Love Incorporated was one of my favorite albums in high school, and it died an antiquated death when I left cassette tapes behind, moving to CDs, MP3 and the iPod. Now, I'm all too tempted to pay iTunes for the privilege of going digital, to enjoy "Peace and Love, Inc.", "Crybaby", and "Where Would I Be Without IBM" again. An excellent album that brings back a ton of memories from high school.

Something Blue

Eiffel 65: Contact Though Eiffel 65 is featured as a 1990s one-hit wonder, with their Blue (Ba Da Bee) song hitting the airwaves in 1999 and 2000, I actually didn't even find that track to be the best on the album. Instead, the album's leading song, Europop is the 15th most listened to song in my iTunes library, with 34 plays since iTunes started counting. Now, we've found an obscure follow-on album in 2001 and are enjoying the group's unique sound.

It's not just weddings that can benefit from something new, something old, something blue. See if you can pull off the trifecta with your iTunes.